Civilians don't need assault weapons

A July 6 letter writer asks for some clarity regarding "assault rifles."

After spending 36 years engineering infantry weapon systems, including the M4 carbine (short version of the M16 rifle) used by the Navy SEALS, perhaps I can help.¿¿

A rifle is a special type of hand gun with a long barrel to attain¿extended range and accuracy.

The caliber of the barrel (its inside nominal diameter in inches or millimeters) also determines the type ammunition family (such as for a shot-gun).¿

The design of the rifle determines its various rates-of-fire, from a single-shot per trigger-pull to automatically (e.g., the "A" in the AK-47 Rifle) firing its entire load of stored ammunition per time.

The chamber and magazine determine how many stored bullets can be fired before re-loading.

Machine guns are large versions of such rifles.¿

The specific type of target determines the type of rifle and the ammunition needed.

But if¿a hunter wants to take down a herd, then very large caliber, rapid-fire is needed — a case for an "assault rifle."¿

This is how the terrorist in Orlando shot¿so many people.

In effect, he attacked ("assaulted")¿a confined group with¿the¿rapid-fire, military-style weapon sold to civilians (who seldom have need to kill in groups).¿

So the gun industry does not want us to clearly understand the engineering and performance differences of these hand-held killing machines as various types of "arms" they market under the intentionally confusing umbrella of "guns" (as in gun-control).¿